unpopular opinion - but basketball, volleyball (beach or otherwise), tennis and TABLE tennis are NOT Olympic sports and it's pretty stupid that they are included in the Olympics. these sports (minus maybe table tennis) already have pro venues and amateur venues year round--so they don't belong. it disgusts me that the IOC allowed them to be included in the first place.

...

oh
then you'r really gonna LUV when Golf joins in

"(Do you read what they say online?) I check out all these scandalous rumours about me and Elijah Wood having beautiful sex with each other ... (are they true?) About Elijah and me being boyfriend and boyfriend? Absolutely true. We've been together for about nine years. I wooed him. No I just like a lot of stuff - I like that someone says one thing and it becomes fact. It's kind of fun." --Dominic Monaghan in a phone interview with Newsweek while buying DVDs at the store. :D

thanks for answering my question abt the Parade, Sparky. i haven't been able to find video footage--all i got was a photo gallery.

"Andromeda may be over but it's not dead. Not as long as we have fanfic writers dedicated to keeping it alive. Whether you accept everything as canon or stop at a certain point. Whether you accept and enjoy Nu Drom or only accept Classic Drom, it will never be over. Not as long as we have each other [and Beka], who binds us all together." ~ Mary Rose

Pointless having it the same as Wimbledon! Olympics is supposed to be for non-professional players
Sparky

Surely you jest. The US sends professional basketball players - just not all from the same pro team, but I don't know why not. I don't know when the rules got so relaxed but it hasn't been for amateurs in a long time. More's the pity.

One of the several reasons that professionals were eventually allowed to compete, beginning in the 80s and expanded later on, was to counter the 'state sponsored full-time amateur athlete' that was being widely used by the eastern bloc countries such as the soviet union and its satellites. the state sponsored athlete is something that China, for example, still employs to this day - training selected candidates from the time they are children to be athletic champions.

allowing professionals was intended as a way to help neutralize that kind of advantage.

Pointless having it the same as Wimbledon! Olympics is supposed to be for non-professional players
Sparky

Surely you jest. The US sends professional basketball players - just not all from the same pro team, but I don't know why not. I don't know when the rules got so relaxed but it hasn't been for amateurs in a long time. More's the pity.

One of the several reasons that professionals were eventually allowed to compete, beginning in the 80s and expanded later on, was to counter the 'state sponsored full-time amateur athlete' that was being widely used by the eastern bloc countries such as the soviet union and its satellites. the state sponsored athlete is something that China, for example, still employs to this day - training selected candidates from the time they are children to be athletic champions.

allowing professionals was intended as a way to help neutralize that kind of advantage.

Which only shows how bad off the NCAA basketball program is, such an advatage wasn't needed in the past.

The longest-running science fiction series: decadent, degenerate and rotten to the core. Power-mad conspirators, Daleks, Sontarans... Cybermen! They're still in the nursery compared to us. Fifty years of absolute fandom. That's what it takes to be really critical.

"Don't mistake a few fans bitching on the Internet for any kind of trend." - Keith R.A. DeCandido

Paralympic runner slash first-time-Olympian Oscar Pistorius failed to place in the 400 meter semifinals, but immediately after the race finished, first-place runner Kirani James of Grenada walked back to shake his hand and offer to swap racing bibs...

The once and future Nonny

"Give a man a gun and he can rob a bank, give a man a bank and he can rob the world." Can anyone tell me who I am quoting? I found this with no attribution.

Fatal miscarriages are forever.

Stupid is stupid, this I believe. And ignorance is the worst kind of stupid, since ignorance is a choice. Suzanne Brockmann

All things must be examined, debated, investigated without exception and without regard for anyone's feelings. Diderot

It was so cool Kirani James to do that. And Usain Bolt was incredible in the 100M final running a 9.62.

The longest-running science fiction series: decadent, degenerate and rotten to the core. Power-mad conspirators, Daleks, Sontarans... Cybermen! They're still in the nursery compared to us. Fifty years of absolute fandom. That's what it takes to be really critical.

"Don't mistake a few fans bitching on the Internet for any kind of trend." - Keith R.A. DeCandido

all right shoot me- loggin in from work, slap my hand, 'bad host'(Arsenio used to say) - but jus had to. After his run in the semi,s- he didn't qual make the finals- this photo from before made the rounds, because THIS is what a 'challenged' competitor can do for others including our young, http://sports.yahoo....0678--oly.html;

"(Do you read what they say online?) I check out all these scandalous rumours about me and Elijah Wood having beautiful sex with each other ... (are they true?) About Elijah and me being boyfriend and boyfriend? Absolutely true. We've been together for about nine years. I wooed him. No I just like a lot of stuff - I like that someone says one thing and it becomes fact. It's kind of fun." --Dominic Monaghan in a phone interview with Newsweek while buying DVDs at the store. :D

Sportsmanship- perspective- vision- spirit- The Games ............................................... >'
What moved Adrian to make that statement was not quite clear. Perhaps he sensed that the questions asked of Magnussen, sitting beside him at the post-race news conference, were an inquisition into his failure rather than an examination of how he had won a silver medal. Perhaps he had looked into the bloodshot, sleep-deprived eyes of his opponent and fathomed the depths of his disappointment.

Adrian is from a nation where swimming is an off-off-Broadway production. He said he would love to revel in the spotlight enjoyed by Australian swimmers. Yet, in witnessing the damage he had inflicted on Magnussen, he was made aware of the unbearable expectations that accompany such celebrity.Advertisement &amp;lt;iframe id="dcAd-1-4" src="http://ad-apac.doubl...?" width=300' height='250' scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0"&amp;gt; &amp;lt;/iframe&amp;gt;
For the Australian swimming team, an Olympics that started with the usual lofty aspirations has become a long, excruciating lesson in grace and humility.
' .......................... http://www.smh.com.a...0802-23ikn.html

"(Do you read what they say online?) I check out all these scandalous rumours about me and Elijah Wood having beautiful sex with each other ... (are they true?) About Elijah and me being boyfriend and boyfriend? Absolutely true. We've been together for about nine years. I wooed him. No I just like a lot of stuff - I like that someone says one thing and it becomes fact. It's kind of fun." --Dominic Monaghan in a phone interview with Newsweek while buying DVDs at the store. :D

"(Do you read what they say online?) I check out all these scandalous rumours about me and Elijah Wood having beautiful sex with each other ... (are they true?) About Elijah and me being boyfriend and boyfriend? Absolutely true. We've been together for about nine years. I wooed him. No I just like a lot of stuff - I like that someone says one thing and it becomes fact. It's kind of fun." --Dominic Monaghan in a phone interview with Newsweek while buying DVDs at the store. :D

I was able to watch the last day of gymnastics on the live stream during the day. The men's high bar was incredibly exciting, with the British commentator getting more and more into it as the high scores piled up before the Dutch man won. Great stuff!! NBC relegated it to nearly the end of the evening coverage, did the two Americans and maybe two others and it seemed to be in a different order so the building of the high scores wasn't as compelling. I've been trying to watch the event replay since to see check my memory but keep getting errors. In any event, it wasn't the same exciting event at all the way NBC presented it.

I've had some buffering problems on all of the live feeds I watch - why are there never buffering problems with the commercials??!!

Did other countries get fed as much beach vollyball as we did?? (Talk about things I don't think should be Olympic sports...) Girls in bikini bottoms and sports bras must bring ratings. And I think our commentators just looooooved saying "Horse Guards Parade."

I'm not sure any team sports should belong in the Olympics... I think a lot of that stuff should be discarded so the whole Olympic experience could be streamlined a bit. I'm with Cheile on some - table tennis? Badminton? Volleyball, tennis (and tennis so soon after Wimbledon). Not sure the equestrian events belong - it's the horse doing the jumping, even if a human is guiding it. Why not robots since a human would be at the control. Oops, shouldn't say it, we'll add battle robots next...

Watched some of the track and field and the diving - I like watching individuals. But a great games, and the weather mostly behaved! Well done, Britain!!

Usain Bolt was the real star to me just by his sheer dominance. And it was the cleanist games in a long time drug wise, despite Carl Lewis' claims to the contrary.

The longest-running science fiction series: decadent, degenerate and rotten to the core. Power-mad conspirators, Daleks, Sontarans... Cybermen! They're still in the nursery compared to us. Fifty years of absolute fandom. That's what it takes to be really critical.

"Don't mistake a few fans bitching on the Internet for any kind of trend." - Keith R.A. DeCandido